Dictionary

birthday suit en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From the lack of clothes worn when one is born.

Meanings

1. (humorous, idiomatic, often) Nakedness, unclothed skin; an exposure of a human's natural anatomy without clothing.
   • A person suddenly caught naked by the collapse of a building wall is treated quite differently than a person who intentionally “streaks” a public gathering in his or her birthday suit. 2001, Tom Slattery, Immodest Proposals: Through the Pornographic Looking Glass, page 181:
   • The terms naturalistic and naturalism suffer from the fact that they have a range of meanings, covering a variety of things from the Romantic submission to nature or the collecting of butterflies to the practice of bathing on the beach clad only in one's birthday suit. 2000, Denis Charles Phillips, The Expanded Social Scientist's Bestiary: A Guide to Fabled Threats to, and Defenses of, Naturalistic Social Science, page 85:
   • At last I'm down to the nitty-gritty, my original birthday suit. Where do I put my hands? I need pockets. 1998, Paul Vaughn, “Confessions of a Naked Writer”, in Orange Coast, page 185:
   • Nature, the universal tailor, provides for every other animal a birthday suit of clothes which is to outlast his life; but man, though so peculiarly sensitive to the assaults of the elements, is ushered into this nether sphere without any covering, in order that he may be compelled to exert his faculties, and become his own tailor, and thereby his own civilizer. 1842, H., “Short Rides in an Author's Omnibus”, in Thomas Hood, editor, The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, page 267:
   • George embarrassed his aunt by answering the door in his birthday suit.
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see birthday, suit.

Forms

Deriveds

birthday suiter · birthday-suited

Relateds

naked as the day one was born

Translations (43)

bg Ада́мово облекло́ (nakedness) · nl paradijskostuum (nakedness) · nb Evas drakt (nakedness) · fa لخت مادرزاد (nakedness) · cmn 赤身裸体 (nakedness) · ru костю́м Ада́ма (nakedness) · no Evas drakt (nakedness) · ja 素っ裸 (nakedness) · fr dans le plus simple appareil (nakedness) · da adamskostume (nakedness) · hu ádámkosztüm (nakedness) · ms telanjang (nakedness) · fr dans son plus simple appareil (nakedness) · fi aataminasu (nakedness) · lt Ievos kostiumas (nakedness) · ru костю́м Е́вы (nakedness) · de Evakostüm (nakedness) · ro costumul lui Adam (nakedness) · nb Adams drakt (nakedness) · cmn 一絲不掛 /一丝不挂 (nakedness) · th ชุดวันเกิด (nakedness) · sv adamsdräkt (nakedness) · lt Adomo kostiumas (nakedness) · nl adamskostuum (nakedness) · de wie Gott ihn/sie schuf (nakedness) · ko 나체 (nakedness) · da evakostume (nakedness) · ms bogel (nakedness) · no Adams drakt (nakedness) · ru to be in one’s birthday suit: в чём мать родила́ (nakedness) · he בִּלְבוּשׁ חַוָּה (nakedness) · fr tenue d’Adam (nakedness) · fi aataminpuku (nakedness) · nl evakostuum (nakedness) · el αδαμιαία περιβολή (nakedness) · fi syntymäasu (nakedness) · fr tenue d’Ève (nakedness) · he עָרֹם כִּבְיוֹם הִוָּלְדוֹ (nakedness) · pt in one’s birthday suit: como veio ao mundo (nakedness) · cmn 赤條條地 /赤条条地 (nakedness) · pl strój Adama (nakedness) · de Adamskostüm (nakedness) · ca vestit d'Adam (nakedness)